Vegas Casinos Looking to Integrate Marijuana

A casino executive and some Nevada state lawmakers continued the push to integrate marijuana directly into the Las Vegas resort experience.

Seth Schorr, the CEO of Fifth Street Gaming (Downtown Grand), has been a big proponent of intertwining legal marijuana into Vegas resorts for as long as a year. For two straight years at UNLV’s Cannabis Policy Institute and International Gaming Institute’s 3rd Annual Gaming & Cannabis Policy Discussion, he spoke on how Las Vegas tourism would benefit from a marriage between marijuana and the resorts.

Currently, marijuana is legal in Nevada, but is banned inside casinos and on the Strip. Individuals can only use it legally in private residences. However, it is pretty common to smell wafts of it while walking around anywhere with a significant crowd. Technically, any usage of it within a resort could result in consequences, including fines.

Schorr wants this changed. He wants laws amended to allow marijuana lounges at casinos and for it to be delivered to the hotel rooms of guests.

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Use Marijuana to Win Back Visitors

The main reason for Schorr’s stance is his belief that the Vegas casino resorts need to act to bring visitors back in large numbers, as visitor numbers have decreased in recent years. He explained at Friday’s panel discussion:

A year ago, we hadn’t gone into a terrible summer and seen double-digit visitation decreases and the rise of the prediction markets that are a direct competitor to the casino business. Things haven’t gotten better. The casino industry has a lot of competition.

Schorr specified that access to marijuana is simply one potential solution to the problem of fading visitors in Vegas and not necessarily the answer as the sure fix.

In response to the critics of marijuana usage in Vegas casinos, Schorr pointed out that combining drinking and gambling has been a staple of Vegas for decades.

State Lawmakers Agree on Integration

Schorr is not the only one pushing for the integration of marijuana. Nevada State Sen. Rochelle Nguyen is another proponent of bringing cannabis to Vegas casinos. Her main argument is that consumers of marijuana are being pushed to unregulated black markets rather than legal means, which could mean lost tax revenue.

She pointed out the disconnect between two people having alcoholic drinks together in a casino, while someone having a drink and wanting to use marijuana is unable to do so.

But the obstacle to such a change remains the ties to federal laws regarding marijuana. Casinos would be concerned about how they fall under banking rules that are subject to federal oversight and audits. Nguyen admitted that a change in marijuana rules would risk sanctions from the federal government, and hence disrupt the gaming industry even more.

The big elephant in the room is that we still need to see some change on the federal level. Everyone hides behind that and with good reason. We don’t want to disrupt our gaming industry by gambling on what the federal government is going to do.

Any legal or regulatory trouble could put gaming licenses at risk. And gaming licenses are ultimately the cash cow in Vegas, even with continued diversification. Putting them at risk so that a small subset of customers can consume marijuana on property doesn’t make sense.

Jeffrey McMillan

Poker Writer

Jeffrey is an Expert Sports and Poker Writer with poker being his specific scope for the better part of five years. He has worked in various capacities at the biggest poker events in the world, WSOP, EPT, local tournaments and more. He has worked with PokerNews, Poker.Org, 888poker and the WSOP itself through the years. Jeff is also a fervent follower of many sports, professional, collegiate and international, with a particular interest in tennis. He received a Master's in Sports Management from the University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) and a Bachelors in the same field from Clemson University.